Time's Blood
Chapter 3
By: Lazeralk Standard disclaimers apply. *.* = Yugi's thoughts ^.^ = Yami Yugi's thoughts
Yugi walked up the steps to the main building of Kaiba Corp just as Kaiba himself was coming out.
"Yugi?" he asked, shifting his ever-present briefcase to his other hand.
"Oh, hello Kaiba, how are you today?" asked Yugi pleasantly.
"Fine. What are you doing here?"
"I'm meeting some one." Answered Yugi.
"Who?" asked Kaiba, not quite sure why he was so interested in what his rival was doing in front of his office but curious none the less. He'd been angry all day, like something big was about to happen and the anticipation was eating at him.
"I don't know."
"You what?" said Kaiba, quite shocked. Didn't he have an appointment book or something?
"How can you not know who your meeting, but know where, and apparently, when? That doesn't make any sense."
Yugi sighed and dug both letters out of his pocket and handed them to Kaiba. The older of the two read them over quickly and frowned. Something about this bugged him.
"I'll wait with you then." He offered.
Yugi was surprised, his rival was offering him company? Seto Kaiba was taking time out of his busy schedule to wait with him for someone he'd never even met?
"Why?"
Kaiba shrugged.
"I just feel like I should."
"But.I mean, thank you, but don't you have things to do?" asked Yugi.
"No. I have the rest of the day off." He replied, he read the letters in his hands again before he handed them back, not bothering to explain anything.
*
Teya, Tristin and Joey crept along the edge of the sidewalk and peaked around the huge brick columns that held the gates of Kaiba Corp together. They watched Yugi hand Kaiba some paper and watched them talk, not hearing a thing. They glanced at eachother and looked back at their friend and sometimes enemy. This just kept getting weirder.
*
^Something's up Yugi, on you toes! ^ Screamed Yami's voice inside his head.
*What.What is that? * He asked, something in the air changed, something dark and slimy that crawled across his skin and caused him to shiver violently. His body jerked; reacting to what ever it was. The world was black for an instant and then he was in Kaiba's arms.
"Yugi! Snap out of it. What's wrong with you?" asked Kaiba staring at the shaking form of his rival. The smaller boy had started shivering, his eyes clouding, his body beginning to spasm before he collapsed completely. Kaiba had dropped his briefcase to catch the smaller boy as he'd fallen. He'd almost dropped the younger, as his skin was icy and waxy to the touch.
"Something.bad.powerful.dark." whispered Yugi.
"Shadow Magic." said Yami, taking over and standing shakily in the circle of Kaiba's arms. They were almost eye level now that he'd changed.
"Yugi?!" asked Kaiba, staring in shock at the older version of Yugi he was now holding up. The new Yugi was taller, sleeker, his muscles more defined, as if he'd aged a few years in the space of a second.
"No Kaiba. I am called Yami. Yugi's mind has been overwhelmed with Shadow Magic. Had I not taken over, Yugi would be deeply unconscious now." Yugi replied in his deeper, more confident voice. The voice Kaiba had grown to know and loathe. The voice that filled with satisfaction when he beat Kaiba in a duel. The royal purple eyes that stared back at him were no longer the trusting, innocent eyes of Yugi Mouto. They were narrow, sharper, shining with vast intelligence, wit and something darker. There was something in them that spoke of experience and harsh realities. He knew, he looked at eyes like that every morning in the mirror.
"Yami then. Can you stand?" asked Kaiba, a new respect and a new curiosity filling him as he continued to support the other young man's weight.
"Perhaps. Forcing Yugi's mind back when he is struggling to keep hold is no easy task. Yugi is strong in mind and heart, add to that the pressure of the Shadow Magic and my divided efforts at both taking over and shielding Yugi from it's power, and this adventure has been awfully draining indeed." Said Yami tiredly.
Kaiba nodded and gently lowered both of them to sit on the steps, one arm still around Yami's waist to keep him from falling, the other searching for his briefcase.
"Bravo Pharaoh." Said a woman's voice.
Two heads snapped up to look at the source. The world was black. They were still there and the woman was there and three figures off to the side were panicking and trying to hide. It didn't work. But even so, the world was still black and Yami thought for a moment that they had entered the Shadow Realm, but a taste of its energy and he knew he was wrong. They were somewhere, not the real world, or the Shadow Realm, but somewhere.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Kaiba.
"Pharaoh, my lord and master Amenhotep. I have come on your orders to fetch you from the future so that you might save yourself, and your empire." Said the woman, completely ignoring Kaiba and focusing her attention on Yami.
Yami looked up at her and gasped. The woman before then was the card More Than You Asked For. She was standing in front of them, still dressed in her black body suit, long wickedly curved blades gleaming in some unseen light. She dropped to her knees before him and lowered her eyes, now free of their mask and startling icy blue, to the ground.
"You sent me from your death bed, my master, and bid me travel to when you were reincarnated and bring you back so that you might prevent your death." She said.
"I what?" asked Yami intelligently.
"'Tis true my lord. On the night of your eighteenth birthday, you were murdered. The one who sought to kill you was not strong enough and you too skilled for you to die quickly and as you bled to death you called me to you. You bid me walk the rivers of time and find you, in a new body so that you might return to the past and prevent the death of your former self." She explained.
Joey, Tristin and Teya had given up their futile attempts at hiding and had joined them in the middle of her speech.
"So, that means were going back to Yugi's past life?" asked Joey.
"Only My lord Amenhotep need come but if my master wills it so, then you may." She said.
Yami found he could stand up and Kaiba followed him. They both glared at her and she flinched.
Yugi had come to when they'd gone from sitting on the steps in front of Kaiba Corp to the black floating world groggy and dizzy. He watched her flinch and the sadness and hurt fill her eyes as she met his and he felt horrible for causing such a reaction.
"What's wrong?" he asked, using Yami's voice. Yami was startled for a moment before he realized what was happening and settled back. He remained in control, but he let Yugi do the talking.
She looked down again.
"I know my master of past and you are not him, else you would not look at me the way you do." She said.
"What other way should I be looking at you?" he asked gently, hoping she's stop looking like someone ran over her puppy.
"I am my master's servant. My lord had chosen me as his lover as well as his body guard and high mage." She said.
Oh. Yugi blinked Yami's eyes.
*Um.Yami? *
^What? ^
*Lover? Maybe you should take over now.I don't know anything about.that. *
^Fine. ^
"Tell me your name." Said Yami.
"Lailiathessa." She answered.
"Lailiathessa? There's got to be an easier way to call you."
Lailiathessa smiled.
"My lord said the very same when he first met me. He's reduced my name to either Laila or Thes."
"Laila then. Where are we?"
"We are in the In-between. The place between time and space. From here I am to guide you to the past. Come, we must enter Time. Be careful. Your death has upset the balance of things my lord. Time has been wounded and the river bleeds."
"Time can bleed?"
"Oh yes my lord, Time, Space, Balance, Power, all can bleed and die if damaged properly."
Yami shook his head trying to absorb it all. This was just to complicated, to abstract. The thought of an idea bleeding and dying was absurd but strangely logical in a way.
"Why did my.death.upset Balance?" he asked.
"Because it was not meant to be my lord."
"Please, just call me Yami Yugi."
"Dark Game, my lord?"
"I am Yami, the other presence within me is Yugi but we can both hear you. Yami Yugi allows you to address us both."
"No, no my lord. Yugi is your reincarnation. You are Amenhotep, but because of the Millenium Puzzle, you are also his Yami, his dark side. Normally, a person who gains a Millenium Item and is not the reincarnation of it's spirit will develop a Yami. But the Yami will be made up of dark impulses and feelings, an alternate personality that is born from within and manifested through the Millenium Item. You, however, match the body that put the puzzle together. You found your reincarnation and manifested perfectly. Most people's Yami's take control, but nothing else. When you take control of your new body, you change physically, because you are taking the form of Amenhotep, not Yugi."
"Whoa, slow down.you're givin' me a headache." said Joey.
"My apologies." Said Laila, giving him a quick glance. Her focus was on Yami alone.
"I don't understand." Said Yami Yugi, shaking his head and frowning.
"You need not understand my lord, all will be well. You will follow me into Time and I will return you to your kingdom." She said as she extended her hand to him.
Yami Yugi looked at it for a moment before he took it, finding that it fit rather nicely in his. A smile found its way to both their faces as she motioned for the others to gather behind her.
She made a sweeping gesture and the world spun, melting into itself and blurring until there was nothing.
* * *
End chapter 3
Chapter 3
By: Lazeralk Standard disclaimers apply. *.* = Yugi's thoughts ^.^ = Yami Yugi's thoughts
Yugi walked up the steps to the main building of Kaiba Corp just as Kaiba himself was coming out.
"Yugi?" he asked, shifting his ever-present briefcase to his other hand.
"Oh, hello Kaiba, how are you today?" asked Yugi pleasantly.
"Fine. What are you doing here?"
"I'm meeting some one." Answered Yugi.
"Who?" asked Kaiba, not quite sure why he was so interested in what his rival was doing in front of his office but curious none the less. He'd been angry all day, like something big was about to happen and the anticipation was eating at him.
"I don't know."
"You what?" said Kaiba, quite shocked. Didn't he have an appointment book or something?
"How can you not know who your meeting, but know where, and apparently, when? That doesn't make any sense."
Yugi sighed and dug both letters out of his pocket and handed them to Kaiba. The older of the two read them over quickly and frowned. Something about this bugged him.
"I'll wait with you then." He offered.
Yugi was surprised, his rival was offering him company? Seto Kaiba was taking time out of his busy schedule to wait with him for someone he'd never even met?
"Why?"
Kaiba shrugged.
"I just feel like I should."
"But.I mean, thank you, but don't you have things to do?" asked Yugi.
"No. I have the rest of the day off." He replied, he read the letters in his hands again before he handed them back, not bothering to explain anything.
*
Teya, Tristin and Joey crept along the edge of the sidewalk and peaked around the huge brick columns that held the gates of Kaiba Corp together. They watched Yugi hand Kaiba some paper and watched them talk, not hearing a thing. They glanced at eachother and looked back at their friend and sometimes enemy. This just kept getting weirder.
*
^Something's up Yugi, on you toes! ^ Screamed Yami's voice inside his head.
*What.What is that? * He asked, something in the air changed, something dark and slimy that crawled across his skin and caused him to shiver violently. His body jerked; reacting to what ever it was. The world was black for an instant and then he was in Kaiba's arms.
"Yugi! Snap out of it. What's wrong with you?" asked Kaiba staring at the shaking form of his rival. The smaller boy had started shivering, his eyes clouding, his body beginning to spasm before he collapsed completely. Kaiba had dropped his briefcase to catch the smaller boy as he'd fallen. He'd almost dropped the younger, as his skin was icy and waxy to the touch.
"Something.bad.powerful.dark." whispered Yugi.
"Shadow Magic." said Yami, taking over and standing shakily in the circle of Kaiba's arms. They were almost eye level now that he'd changed.
"Yugi?!" asked Kaiba, staring in shock at the older version of Yugi he was now holding up. The new Yugi was taller, sleeker, his muscles more defined, as if he'd aged a few years in the space of a second.
"No Kaiba. I am called Yami. Yugi's mind has been overwhelmed with Shadow Magic. Had I not taken over, Yugi would be deeply unconscious now." Yugi replied in his deeper, more confident voice. The voice Kaiba had grown to know and loathe. The voice that filled with satisfaction when he beat Kaiba in a duel. The royal purple eyes that stared back at him were no longer the trusting, innocent eyes of Yugi Mouto. They were narrow, sharper, shining with vast intelligence, wit and something darker. There was something in them that spoke of experience and harsh realities. He knew, he looked at eyes like that every morning in the mirror.
"Yami then. Can you stand?" asked Kaiba, a new respect and a new curiosity filling him as he continued to support the other young man's weight.
"Perhaps. Forcing Yugi's mind back when he is struggling to keep hold is no easy task. Yugi is strong in mind and heart, add to that the pressure of the Shadow Magic and my divided efforts at both taking over and shielding Yugi from it's power, and this adventure has been awfully draining indeed." Said Yami tiredly.
Kaiba nodded and gently lowered both of them to sit on the steps, one arm still around Yami's waist to keep him from falling, the other searching for his briefcase.
"Bravo Pharaoh." Said a woman's voice.
Two heads snapped up to look at the source. The world was black. They were still there and the woman was there and three figures off to the side were panicking and trying to hide. It didn't work. But even so, the world was still black and Yami thought for a moment that they had entered the Shadow Realm, but a taste of its energy and he knew he was wrong. They were somewhere, not the real world, or the Shadow Realm, but somewhere.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Kaiba.
"Pharaoh, my lord and master Amenhotep. I have come on your orders to fetch you from the future so that you might save yourself, and your empire." Said the woman, completely ignoring Kaiba and focusing her attention on Yami.
Yami looked up at her and gasped. The woman before then was the card More Than You Asked For. She was standing in front of them, still dressed in her black body suit, long wickedly curved blades gleaming in some unseen light. She dropped to her knees before him and lowered her eyes, now free of their mask and startling icy blue, to the ground.
"You sent me from your death bed, my master, and bid me travel to when you were reincarnated and bring you back so that you might prevent your death." She said.
"I what?" asked Yami intelligently.
"'Tis true my lord. On the night of your eighteenth birthday, you were murdered. The one who sought to kill you was not strong enough and you too skilled for you to die quickly and as you bled to death you called me to you. You bid me walk the rivers of time and find you, in a new body so that you might return to the past and prevent the death of your former self." She explained.
Joey, Tristin and Teya had given up their futile attempts at hiding and had joined them in the middle of her speech.
"So, that means were going back to Yugi's past life?" asked Joey.
"Only My lord Amenhotep need come but if my master wills it so, then you may." She said.
Yami found he could stand up and Kaiba followed him. They both glared at her and she flinched.
Yugi had come to when they'd gone from sitting on the steps in front of Kaiba Corp to the black floating world groggy and dizzy. He watched her flinch and the sadness and hurt fill her eyes as she met his and he felt horrible for causing such a reaction.
"What's wrong?" he asked, using Yami's voice. Yami was startled for a moment before he realized what was happening and settled back. He remained in control, but he let Yugi do the talking.
She looked down again.
"I know my master of past and you are not him, else you would not look at me the way you do." She said.
"What other way should I be looking at you?" he asked gently, hoping she's stop looking like someone ran over her puppy.
"I am my master's servant. My lord had chosen me as his lover as well as his body guard and high mage." She said.
Oh. Yugi blinked Yami's eyes.
*Um.Yami? *
^What? ^
*Lover? Maybe you should take over now.I don't know anything about.that. *
^Fine. ^
"Tell me your name." Said Yami.
"Lailiathessa." She answered.
"Lailiathessa? There's got to be an easier way to call you."
Lailiathessa smiled.
"My lord said the very same when he first met me. He's reduced my name to either Laila or Thes."
"Laila then. Where are we?"
"We are in the In-between. The place between time and space. From here I am to guide you to the past. Come, we must enter Time. Be careful. Your death has upset the balance of things my lord. Time has been wounded and the river bleeds."
"Time can bleed?"
"Oh yes my lord, Time, Space, Balance, Power, all can bleed and die if damaged properly."
Yami shook his head trying to absorb it all. This was just to complicated, to abstract. The thought of an idea bleeding and dying was absurd but strangely logical in a way.
"Why did my.death.upset Balance?" he asked.
"Because it was not meant to be my lord."
"Please, just call me Yami Yugi."
"Dark Game, my lord?"
"I am Yami, the other presence within me is Yugi but we can both hear you. Yami Yugi allows you to address us both."
"No, no my lord. Yugi is your reincarnation. You are Amenhotep, but because of the Millenium Puzzle, you are also his Yami, his dark side. Normally, a person who gains a Millenium Item and is not the reincarnation of it's spirit will develop a Yami. But the Yami will be made up of dark impulses and feelings, an alternate personality that is born from within and manifested through the Millenium Item. You, however, match the body that put the puzzle together. You found your reincarnation and manifested perfectly. Most people's Yami's take control, but nothing else. When you take control of your new body, you change physically, because you are taking the form of Amenhotep, not Yugi."
"Whoa, slow down.you're givin' me a headache." said Joey.
"My apologies." Said Laila, giving him a quick glance. Her focus was on Yami alone.
"I don't understand." Said Yami Yugi, shaking his head and frowning.
"You need not understand my lord, all will be well. You will follow me into Time and I will return you to your kingdom." She said as she extended her hand to him.
Yami Yugi looked at it for a moment before he took it, finding that it fit rather nicely in his. A smile found its way to both their faces as she motioned for the others to gather behind her.
She made a sweeping gesture and the world spun, melting into itself and blurring until there was nothing.
* * *
End chapter 3